Cancellation: Refers to Section 6 (b) of the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) which authorizes cancellation of
a pesticide registration if unreasonable adverse effects to the environment
and public health develop when a product is used according to widespread
and commonly recognized practice, or if its labeling or other material
required to be submitted does not comply with FIFRA provisions.

Cap: A layer of clay, or other impermeable material installed
over the top of a closed landfill to prevent entry of rainwater and minimize
leachate.

Capacity Assurance Plan: A statewide plan which supports a state's
ability to manage the hazardous waste generated within its boundaries
over a twenty year period.

Capillary Action: Movement of water through very small spaces
due to molecular forces called capillary forces.

Capillary Fringe: The porous material just above the water table
which may hold water by capillarity (a property of surface tension that
draws water upwards) in the smaller void spaces.

Capillary Fringe: The zone above he water table within which the
porous medium is saturated by water under less than atmospheric pressure.

Capture Efficiency: The fraction of organic vapors generated by
a process that are directed to an abatement or recovery device.

Carbon Absorber: An add-on control device that uses activated
carbon to absorb volatile organic compounds from a gas stream. (The VOCs
are later recovered from the carbon.)

Carbon Adsorption: A treatment system that removes contaminants
from ground water or surface water by forcing it through tanks containing
activated carbon treated to attract the contaminants.

Carbon Tetrachloride (CC14): Compound consisting of one carbon
atom ad four chlorine atoms, once widely used as a industrial raw material,
as a solvent, and in the production of CFCs. Use as a solvent ended when
it was discovered to be carcinogenic.

Carboxyhemoglobin: Hemoglobin in which the iron is bound to carbon
monoxide(CO) instead of oxygen.

Carcinogen: Any substance that can cause or aggravate cancer.

Carrier: 1.The inert liquid or solid material in a pesticide product
that serves as a delivery vehicle for the active ingredient. Carriers
do not have toxic properties of their own. 2. Any material or system that
can facilitate the movement of a pollutant into the body or cells.

Carrying Capacity: 1. In recreation management, the amount of
use a recreation area can sustain without loss of quality. 2. In wildlife
management, the maximum number of animals an area can support during a
given period.

CAS Registration Number: A number assigned by the Chemical Abstract
Service to identify a chemical.

Cask: A thick-walled container (usually lead) used to transport
radioactive material. Also called a coffin.

Catalyst: A substance that changes the speed or yield of a chemical
reaction without being consumed or chemically changed by the chemical
reaction.

Catalytic Converter: An air pollution abatement device that removes
pollutants from motor vehicle exhaust, either by oxidizing them into carbon
dioxide and water or reducing them to nitrogen.

Catalytic Incinerator: A control device that oxidizes volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) by using a catalyst to promote the combustion
process. Catalytic incinerators require lower temperatures than conventional
thermal incinerators, thus saving fuel and other costs.

Categorical Exclusion: A class of actions which either individually
or cumulatively would not have a significant effect on the human environment
and therefore would not require preparation of an environmental assessment
or environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA).

Categorical Pretreatment Standard: A technology-based effluent
limitation for an industrial facility discharging into a municipal sewer
system. Analogous in stringency to Best Availability Technology (BAT)
for direct dischargers.

Cathodic Protection: A technique to prevent corrosion of a metal
surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell.

Cavitation: The formation and collapse of gas pockets or bubbles
on the blade of an impeller or the gate of a valve; collapse of these
pockets or bubbles drives water with such force that it can cause pitting
of the gate or valve surface.

Cells: 1. In solid waste disposal, holes where waste is dumped,
compacted, and covered with layers of dirt on a daily basis. 2. The smallest
structural part of living matter capable of functioning as an independent
unit.

Cementitious: Densely packed and nonfibrous friable materials.

Central Collection Point: Location were a generator of regulated
medical waste consolidates wastes originally generated at various locations
in his facility. The wastes are gathered together for treatment on-site
or for transportation elsewhere for treatment and/or disposal. This term
could also apply to community hazardous waste collections, industrial
and other waste management systems.

Centrifugal Collector: A mechanical system using centrifugal force
to remove aerosols from a gas stream or to remove water from sludge.

CERCLIS: The federal Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Information System is a database that includes all
sites which have been nominated for investigation by the Superfund program.

Channelization: Straightening and deepening streams so water will
move faster, a marsh-drainage tactic that can interfere with waste assimilation
capacity, disturb fish and wildlife habitats, and aggravate flooding.

Characteristic: Any one of the four categories used in defining
hazardous waste: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.

Characterization of Ecological Effects: Part of ecological risk
assessment that evaluates ability of a stressor to cause adverse effects
under given circumstances.

Characterization of Exposure: Portion of an ecological risk assessment
that evaluates interaction of a stressor with one or more ecological entities.

Check-Valve Tubing Pump: Water sampling tool also referred to
as a water Pump.

Chemical Case: For purposes of review and regulation, the grouping
of chemically similar pesticide active ingredients (e.g. salts and esters
of the same chemical) into chemical cases.

Chemical Compound: A distinct and pure substance formed by the
union or two or more elements in definite proportion by weight.

Chemical Element: A fundamental substance comprising one kind
of atom; the simplest form of matter.

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD): A measure of the oxygen required
to oxidize all compounds, both organic and inorganic, in water.

Chemical Stressors: Chemicals released to the environment through
industrial waste, auto emissions, pesticides, and other human activity
that can cause illnesses and even death in plants and animals.

Chemical Treatment: Any one of a variety of technologies that
use chemicals or a variety of chemical processes to treat waste.

Chemnet: Mutual aid network of chemical shippers and contractors
that assigns a contracted emergency response company to provide technical
support if a representative of the firm whose chemicals are involved in
an incident is not readily available.

Chemosterilant: A chemical that controls pests by preventing reproduction.

Child Resistant Packaging (CRP): Packaging that protects children
or adults from injury or illness resulting from accidental contact with
or ingestion of residential pesticides that meet or exceed specific toxicity
levels. Required by FIFRA regulations. Term is also used for protective
packaging of medicines.

Chiller: A device that generates a cold liquid that is circulated
through an air-handling unit's cooling coil to cool the air supplied to
the building.

Chilling Effect: The lowering of the Earth's temperature because
of increased particles in the air blocking the sun's rays. (See: greenhouse
effect.)

Chisel Plowing: Preparing croplands by using a special implement
that avoids complete inversion of the soil as in conventional plowing.
Chisel plowing can leave a protective cover or crops residues on the soil
surface to help prevent erosion and improve filtration.

Chlorinated Hydrocarbons: 1. Chemicals containing only chlorine,
carbon, and hydrogen. These include a class of persistent, broad-spectrum
insecticides that linger in the environment and accumulate in the food
chain. Among them are DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlor, chlordane, lindane,
endrin, Mirex, hexachloride, and toxaphene. Other examples include TCE,
used as an industrial solvent. 2. Any chlorinated organic compounds including
chlorinated solvents such as dichloromethane, trichloromethylene, chloroform.

Chlorination: The application of chlorine to drinking water, sewage,
or industrial waste to disinfect or to oxidize undesirable compounds.

Chlorinator: A device that adds chlorine, in gas or liquid form,
to water or sewage to kill infectious bacteria.

Chlorine-Contact Chamber: That part of a water treatment plant
where effluent is disinfected by chlorine.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): A family of inert, nontoxic, and easily
liquefied chemicals used in refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging,
insulation, or as solvents and aerosol propellants. Because CFCs are not
destroyed in the lower atmosphere they drift into the upper atmosphere
where their chlorine components destroy ozone. (See: fluorocarbons.)

Chlorophenoxy: A class of herbicides that may be found in domestic
water supplies and cause adverse health effects.

Chlorosis: Discoloration of normally green plant parts caused
by disease, lack of nutrients, or various air pollutants.

Cholinesterase: An enzyme found in animals that regulates nerve
impulses by the inhibition of acetylcholine. Cholinesterase inhibition
is associated with a variety of acute symptoms such as nausea, vomiting,
blurred vision, stomach cramps, and rapid heart rate.

Chronic Effect: An adverse effect on a human or animal in which
symptoms recur frequently or develop slowly over a long period of time.

Chronic Exposure: Multiple exposures occurring over an extended
period of time or over a significant fraction of an animal's or human's
lifetime (Usually seven years to a lifetime.)

Chronic Toxicity: The capacity of a substance to cause long-term
poisonous health effects in humans, animals, fish, and other organisms.
(See: acute toxicity.)

Circle of Influence: The circular outer edge of a depression produced
in the water table by the pumping of water from a well. (See: cone
of depression.)

Cistern: Small tank or storage facility used to store water for
a home or farm; often used to store rain water.

Clarification: Clearing action that occurs during wastewater treatment
when solids settle out. This is often aided by centrifugal action and
chemically induced coagulation in wastewater.

Clarifier: A tank in which solids settle to the bottom and are
subsequently removed as sludge.

Class I Area: Under the Clean Air Act. a Class I area is one in
which visibility is protected more stringently than under the national
ambient air quality standards; includes national parks, wilderness areas,
monuments, and other areas of special national and cultural significance.

Class I Substance: One of several groups of chemicals with an
ozone depletion potential of 0.2 or higher, including CFCS, Halons, Carbon
Tetrachloride, and Methyl Chloroform (listed in the Clean Air Act), and
HBFCs and Ethyl Bromide (added by EPA regulations). (See: Global
warming potential.)

Class II Substance: A substance with an ozone depletion potential
of less than 0.2. All HCFCs are currently included in this classification.
(See: Global warming potential.)

Clay Soil: Soil material containing more than 40 percent clay,
less than 45 percent sand, and less than 40 percent silt.

Clean Coal Technology: Any technology not in widespread use prior
to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This Act will achieve significant
reductions in pollutants associated with the burning of coal.

Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment: A document that systematically
evaluates the relative risk, performance, and cost trade-offs of technological
alternatives; serves as a repository for all the technical data (including
methodology and results) developed by a DfE or other pollution prevention
or education project.

Cleanup: Actions taken to deal with a release or threat of release
of a hazardous substance that could affect humans and/or the environment.
The term "cleanup" is sometimes used interchangeably with the
terms remedial action, removal action, response action, or corrective
action.

Clear Cut: Harvesting all the trees in one area at one time, a
practice that can encourage fast rainfall or snowmelt runoff, erosion,
sedimentation of streams and lakes, and flooding, and destroys vital habitat.

Clear Well: A reservoir for storing filtered water of sufficient
quantity to prevent the need to vary the filtration rate with variations
in demand. Also used to provide chlorine contact time for disinfection.

Climate Change (also referred to as 'global climate change'):
The term 'climate change' is sometimes used to refer to all forms of climatic
inconsistency, but because the Earth's climate is never static, the term
is more properly used to imply a significant change from one climatic
condition to another. In some cases, 'climate change' has been used synonymously
with the term, 'global warming'; scientists however, tend to use the term
in the wider sense to also include natural changes in climate. (See: global
warming.)

Cloning: In biotechnology, obtaining a group of genetically identical
cells from a single cell; making identical copies of a gene.

Closed-Loop Recycling: Reclaiming or reusing wastewater for non-potable
purposes in an enclosed process.

Closure: The procedure a landfill operator must follow when a
landfill reaches its legal capacity for solid ceasing acceptance of solid
waste and placing a cap on the landfill site.

Co-fire: Burning of two fuels in the same combustion unit; e.g.,
coal and natural gas, or oil and coal.

Coagulation: Clumping of particles in wastewater to settle out
impurities, often induced by chemicals such as lime, alum, and iron salts.

Coal Cleaning Technology: A precombustion process by which coal
is physically or chemically treated to remove some of its sulfur so as
to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.

Coal Gasification: Conversion of coal to a gaseous product by
one of several available technologies.

Coastal Zone: Lands and waters adjacent to the coast that exert
an influence on the uses of the sea and its ecology, or whose uses and
ecology are affected by the sea.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): Document that codifies all
rules of the executive departments and agencies of the federal government.
It is divided into fifty volumes, known as titles. Title 40 of the CFR
(referenced as 40 CFR) lists all environmental regulations.

Coefficient of Haze (COH): A measurement of visibility interference
in the atmosphere.

Cogeneration: The consecutive generation of useful thermal and
electric energy from the same fuel source.

Coke Oven: An industrial process which converts coal into coke,
one of the basic materials used in blast furnaces for the conversion of
iron ore into iron.

Cold Temperature CO: A standard for automobile emissions of carbon
monoxide (CO) emissions to be met at a low temperature (i.e. 20 degrees
Fahrenheit). Conventional automobile catalytic converters are not efficient
in cold weather until they warm up.

Coliform Index: A rating of the purity of water based on a count
of fecal bacteria.

Coliform Organism: Microorganisms found in the intestinal tract
of humans and animals. Their presence in water indicates fecal pollution
and potentially adverse contamination by pathogens.

Collector Sewers: Pipes used to collect and carry wastewater from
individual sources to an interceptor sewer that will carry it to a treatment
facility.

Colloids: Very small, finely divided solids (that do not dissolve)
that remain dispersed in a liquid for a long time due to their small size
and electrical charge.

Combined Sewer Overflows: Discharge of a mixture of storm water
and domestic waste when the flow capacity of a sewer system is exceeded
during rainstorms.

Combined Sewers: A sewer system that carries both sewage and storm-water
runoff. Normally, its entire flow goes to a waste treatment plant, but
during a heavy storm, the volume of water may be so great as to cause
overflows of untreated mixtures of storm water and sewage into receiving
waters. Storm-water runoff may also carry toxic chemicals from industrial
areas or streets into the sewer system.

Combustion: 1. Burning, or rapid oxidation, accompanied by release
of energy in the form of heat and light. 2. Refers to controlled burning
of waste, in which heat chemically alters organic compounds, converting
into stable inorganics such as carbon dioxide and water.

Combustion Chamber: The actual compartment where waste is burned
in an incinerator.

Combustion Product: Substance produced during the burning or oxidation
of a material.

Command Post: Facility located at a safe distance upwind from
an accident site, where the on-scene coordinator, responders, and technical
representatives make response decisions, deploy manpower and equipment,
maintain liaison with news media, and handle communications.

Comment Period: Time provided for the public to review and comment
on a proposed EPA action or rulemaking after publication in the Federal
Register.

Commercial Waste: All solid waste emanating from business establishments
such as stores, markets, office buildings, restaurants, shopping centers,
and theaters.

Commercial Waste Management Facility: A treatment, storage, disposal,
or transfer facility which accepts waste from a variety of sources, as
compared to a private facility which normally manages a limited waste
stream generated by its own operations.

Comminuter: A machine that shreds or pulverizes solids to make
waste treatment easier.

Comminution: Mechanical shredding or pulverizing of waste. Used
in both solid waste management and wastewater treatment.

Common Sense Initiative: Voluntary program to simplify environmental
regulation to achieve cleaner, cheaper, smarter results, starting with
six major industry sectors.

Community: In ecology, an assemblage of populations of different
species within a specified location in space and time. Sometimes, a particular
subgrouping may be specified, such as the fish community in a lake or
the soil arthropod community in a forest.

Community Relations: The EPA effort to establish two-way communication
with the public to create understanding of EPA programs and related actions,
to ensure public input into decision-making processes related to affected
communities, and to make certain that the Agency is aware of and responsive
to public concerns. Specific community relations activities are required
in relation to Superfund remedial actions.

Community Water System: A public water system which serves at
least 15 service connections used by year-round residents or regularly
serves at least 25 year-round residents.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL): Small fluorescent lamps used as
more efficient alternatives to incandescent lighting. Also called PL,
CFL, Twin-Tube, or BIAX lamps.

Compaction: Reduction of the bulk of solid waste by rolling and
tamping.

Comparative Risk Assessment: Process that generally uses the judgement
of experts to predict effects and set priorities among a wide range of
environmental problems.

Complete Treatment: A method of treating water that consists of
the addition of coagulant chemicals, flash mixing, coagulation-flocculation,
sedimentation, and filtration. Also called conventional filtration.

Compliance Coal: Any coal that emits less than 1.2 pounds of sulfur
dioxide per million Btu when burned. Also known as low sulfur coal.

Compliance Coating: A coating whose volatile organic compound
content does not exceed that allowed by regulation.

Compliance Cycle: The 9-year calendar year cycle, beginning January
1, 1993, during which public water systems must monitor. Each cycle consists
of three 3-year compliance periods.

Compliance Monitoring: Collection and evaluation of data, including
self-monitoring reports, and verification to show whether pollutant concentrations
and loads contained in permitted discharges are in compliance with the
limits and conditions specified in the permit.

Compliance Schedule: A negotiated agreement between a pollution
source and a government agency that specifies dates and procedures by
which a source will reduce emissions and, thereby, comply with a regulation.

Composite Sample: A series of water samples taken over a given
period of time and weighted by flow rate.

Compost: A humus or soil-like material created from aerobic, microbial
decomposition of organic materials such as food scraps, yard trimmings, and manure

Composting: The controlled biological decomposition of organic
material in the presence of air to form a humus-like material. Controlled
methods of composting include mechanical mixing and aerating, ventilating
the materials by dropping them through a vertical series of aerated chambers,
or placing the compost in piles out in the open air and mixing it or turning
it periodically.

Composting Facilities: 1. An offsite facility where the organic
component of municipal solid waste is decomposed under controlled conditions;
2.an aerobic process in which organic materials are ground or shredded
and then decomposed to humus in windrow piles or in mechanical digesters,
drums, or similar enclosures.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG): An alternative fuel for motor vehicles;
considered one of the cleanest because of low hydrocarbon emissions and
its vapors are relatively non-ozone producing. However, vehicles fueled
with CNG do emit a significant quantity of nitrogen oxides.

Concentration: The relative amount of a substance mixed with another
substance. An example is five ppm of carbon monoxide in air or 1 mg/l
of iron in water.

Condensate: 1.Liquid formed when warm landfill gas cools as it
travels through a collection system. 2. Water created by cooling steam
or water vapor.

Condensate Return System: System that returns the heated water
condensing within steam piping to the boiler and thus saves energy.

Conditional Registration: Under special circumstances, the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) permits registration
of pesticide products that is "conditional" upon the submission
of additional data. These special circumstances include a finding by the
EPA Administrator that a new product or use of an existing pesticide will
not significantly increase the risk of unreasonable adverse effects. A
product containing a new (previously unregistered) active ingredient may
be conditionally registered only if the Administrator finds that such
conditional registration is in the public interest, that a reasonable
time for conducting the additional studies has not elapsed, and the use
of the pesticide for the period of conditional registration will not present
an unreasonable risk.

Conditionally Exempt Generators (CE): Persons or enterprises which
produce less than 220 pounds of hazardous waste per month. Exempt from
most regulation, they are required merely to determine whether their waste
is hazardous, notify appropriate state or local agencies, and ship it
by an authorized transporter to a permitted facility for proper disposal.
(See: small quantity generator.)

Conductance: A rapid method of estimating the dissolved solids
content of water supply by determining the capacity of a water sample
to carry an electrical current. Conductivity is a measure of the ability
of a solution to carry and electrical current.

Conductivity: A measure of the ability of a solution to carry
an electrical current.

Cone of Depression: A depression in the water table that develops
around a pumped well.

Cone of Influence: The depression, roughly conical in shape, produced
in a water table by the pumping of water from a well.

Cone Penterometer Testing (CPT): A direct push system used to
measure lithology based on soil penetration resistance. Sensors in the
tip of the cone of the DP rod measure tip resistance and side-wall friction,
transmitting electrical signals to digital processing equipment on the
ground surface. (See: direct push.)

Confidential Business Information (CBI): Material that contains
trade secrets or commercial or financial information that has been claimed
as confidential by its source (e.g. a pesticide or new chemical formulation
registrant). EPA has special procedures for handling such information.

Confidential Statement of Formula (CSF): A list of the ingredients
in a new pesticide or chemical formulation. The list is submitted at the
time for application for registration or change in formulation.

Confined Aquifer: An aquifer in which ground water is confined
under pressure which is significantly greater than atmospheric pressure.

Confluent Growth: A continuous bacterial growth covering all or
part of the filtration area of a membrane filter in which the bacteria
colonies are not discrete.

Consent Decree: A legal document, approved by a judge, that formalizes
an agreement reached between EPA and potentially responsible parties (PRPs)
through which PRPs will conduct all or part of a cleanup action at a Superfund
site; cease or correct actions or processes that are polluting the environment;
or otherwise comply with EPA initiated regulatory enforcement actions
to resolve the contamination at the Superfund site involved. The consent
decree describes the actions PRPs will take and may be subject to a public
comment period.

Conservation: Preserving and renewing, when possible, human and
natural resources. The use, protection, and improvement of natural resources
according to principles that will ensure their highest economic or social
benefits.

Conservation Easement: Easement restricting a landowner to land
uses that that are compatible with long-term conservation and environmental
values.

Constituent(s) of Concern: Specific chemicals that are identified
for evaluation in the site assessment process

Construction and Demolition Waste: Waste building materials, dredging
materials, tree stumps, and rubble resulting from construction, remodeling,
repair, and demolition of homes, commercial buildings and other structures
and pavements. May contain lead, asbestos, or other hazardous substances.

Construction Ban: If, under the Clean Air Act, EPA disapproves
an area's planning requirements for correcting nonattainment, EPA can
ban the construction or modification of any major stationary source of
the pollutant for which the area is in nonattainment.

Consumptive Water Use: Water removed from available supplies without
return to a water resources system, e.g. water used in manufacturing,
agriculture, and food preparation.

Contact Pesticide: A chemical that kills pests when it touches
them, instead of by ingestion. Also, soil that contains the minute skeletons
of certain algae that scratch and dehydrate waxy-coated insects.

Contaminant: Any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological
substance or matter that has an adverse effect on air, water, or soil.

Contamination: Introduction into water, air, and soil of microorganisms,
chemicals, toxic substances, wastes, or wastewater in a concentration
that makes the medium unfit for its next intended use. Also applies to
surfaces of objects, buildings, and various household and agricultural
use products.

Contamination Source Inventory: An inventory of contaminant sources
within delineated State Water-Protection Areas. Targets likely sources
for further investigation.

Contingency Plan: A document setting out an organized, planned,
and coordinated course of action to be followed in case of a fire, explosion,
or other accident that releases toxic chemicals, hazardous waste, or radioactive
materials that threaten human health or the environment. (See: National
Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan.)

Continuous Discharge: A routine release to the environment that
occurs without interruption, except for infrequent shutdowns for maintenance,
process changes, etc.

Continuous Sample: A flow of water, waste or other material from
a particular place in a plant to the location where samples are collected
for testing. May be used to obtain grab or composite samples.

Contour Plowing: Soil tilling method that follows the shape of
the land to discourage erosion.

Contour Strip Farming: A kind of contour farming in which row
crops are planted in strips, between alternating strips of close-growing,
erosion-resistant forage crops.

Contract Labs: Laboratories under contract to EPA, which analyze
samples taken from waste, soil, air, and water or carry out research projects.

Control Technique Guidelines (CTG): EPA documents designed to
assist state and local pollution authorities to achieve and maintain air
quality standards for certain sources (e.g. organic emissions from solvent
metal cleaning known as degreasing) through reasonably available control
technologies (RACT).

Controlled Reaction: A chemical reaction under temperature and
pressure conditions maintained within safe limits to produce a desired
product or process.

Conventional Pollutants: Statutorily listed pollutants understood
well by scientists. These may be in the form of organic waste, sediment,
acid, bacteria, viruses, nutrients, oil and grease, or heat.

Conventional Site Assessment: Assessment in which most of the
sample analysis and interpretation of data is completed off-site; process
usually requires repeated mobilization of equipment and staff in order
to fully determine the extent of contamination.

Conventional Systems: Systems that have been traditionally used
to collect municipal wastewater in gravity sewers and convey it to a central
primary or secondary treatment plant prior to discharge to surface waters.

Conventional Tilling: Tillage operations considered standard for
a specific location and crop and that tend to bury the crop residues;
usually considered as a base for determining the cost effectiveness of
control practices.

Conveyance Loss: Water loss in pipes, channels, conduits, ditches
by leakage or evaporation.

Cooling Electricity Use: Amount of electricity used to meet the
building cooling load. (See: building cooling load.)

Cooling Tower: A structure that helps remove heat from water used
as a coolant; e.g., in electric power generating plants.

Cooling Tower: Device which dissipates the heat from water-cooled
systems by spraying the water through streams of rapidly moving air.

Cooperative Agreement: An assistance agreement whereby EPA transfers
money, property, services or anything of value to a state, university,
non-profit, or not-for-profit organization for the accomplishment of authorized
activities or tasks.

Core: The uranium-containing heart of a nuclear reactor, where
energy is released.

Core Program Cooperative Agreement: An assistance agreement whereby
EPA supports states or tribal governments with funds to help defray the
cost of non-item-specific administrative and training activities.

Corrective Action: EPA can require treatment, storage and disposal
(TSDF) facilities handling hazardous waste to undertake corrective actions
to clean up spills resulting from failure to follow hazardous waste management
procedures or other mistakes. The process includes cleanup procedures
designed to guide TSDFs toward in spills.

Corrosion: The dissolution and wearing away of metal caused by
a chemical reaction such as between water and the pipes, chemicals touching
a metal surface, or contact between two metals.

Corrosive: A chemical agent that reacts with the surface of a
material causing it to deteriorate or wear away.

Cost/Benefit Analysis: A quantitative evaluation of the costs
which would have incurred by implementing an environmental regulation
versus the overall benefits to society of the proposed action.

Cost Recovery: A legal process by which potentially responsible
parties who contributed to contamination at a Superfund site can be required
to reimburse the Trust Fund for money spent during any cleanup actions
by the federal government.

Cost Sharing: A publicly financed program through which society,
as a beneficiary of environmental protection, shares part of the cost
of pollution control with those who must actually install the controls.
In Superfund, for example, the government may pay part of the cost of
a cleanup action with those responsible for the pollution paying the major
share.

Cost-Effective Alternative: An alternative control or corrective
method identified after analysis as being the best available in terms
of reliability, performance, and cost. Although costs are one important
consideration, regulatory and compliance analysis does not require EPA
to choose the least expensive alternative. For example, when selecting
or approving a method for cleaning up a Superfund site, the Agency balances
costs with the long-term effectiveness of the methods proposed and the
potential danger posed by the site.

Cover Material: Soil used to cover compacted solid waste in a
sanitary landfill.

Cradle-to-Grave or Manifest System: A procedure in which hazardous
materials are identified and followed as they are produced, treated, transported,
and disposed of by a series of permanent, linkable, descriptive documents
(e.g. manifests). Commonly referred to as the cradle-to-grave system.

Criteria: Descriptive factors taken into account by EPA in setting
standards for various pollutants. These factors are used to determine
limits on allowable concentration levels, and to limit the number of violations
per year. When issued by EPA, the criteria provide guidance to the states
on how to establish their standards.

Criteria Pollutants: The 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act
required EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for certain
pollutants known to be hazardous to human health. EPA has identified and
set standards to protect human health and welfare for six pollutants:
ozone, carbon monoxide, total suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide,
lead, and nitrogen oxide. The term, "criteria pollutants" derives
from the requirement that EPA must describe the characteristics and potential
health and welfare effects of these pollutants. It is on the basis of
these criteria that standards are set or revised.

Critical Effect: The first adverse effect, or its known precursor,
that occurs as a dose rate increases. Designation is based on evaluation
of overall database.

Crop Consumptive Use: The amount of water transpired during plant
growth plus what evaporated from the soil surface and foliage in the crop
area.

Crop Rotation: Planting a succession of different crops on the
same land rea as opposed to planting the same crop time after time.

Cross Contamination: The movement of underground contaminants
from one level or area to another due to invasive subsurface activities.

Cross-Connection: Any actual or potential connection between a
drinking water system and an unapproved water supply or other source of
contamination.

Crumb Rubber: Ground rubber fragments the size of sand or silt
used in rubber or plastic products, or processed further into reclaimed
rubber or asphalt products.

Cryptosporidium: A protozoan microbe associated with the disease
cryptosporidiosis in man. The disease can be transmitted through ingestion
of drinking water, person-to-person contact, or other pathways, and can
cause acute diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever, and can be fatal
as it was in the Milwaukee episode.

Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM): A measure of the volume of a substance
flowing through air within a fixed period of time. With regard to indoor
air, refers to the amount of air, in cubic feet, that is exchanged with
outdoor air in a minute's time; i.e. the air exchange rate.

Cullet: Crushed glass.

Cultural Eutrophication: Increasing rate at which water bodies
"die" by pollution from human activities.

Cultures and Stocks: Infectious agents and associated biologicals
including cultures from medical and pathological laboratories; cultures
and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories;
waste from the production of biologicals; discarded live and attenuated
vaccines; and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate,
and mix cultures. (See: regulated medical waste.)

Cumulative Ecological Risk Assessment: Consideration of the total
ecological risk from multiple stressors to a given eco-zone.

Cumulative Exposure: The sum of exposures of an organism to a
pollutant over a period of time.

Cumulative Working Level Months (CWLM): The sum of lifetime exposure
to radon working levels expressed in total working level months.

Curb Stop: A water service shutoff valve located in a water service
pipe near the curb and between the water main and the building.

Curbside Collection: Method of collecting recyclable materials
at homes, community districts or businesses.